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explainer thread re: some of the most important physical components & what actually does what in a(n ethernet) switch:

ASIC: - looks at frames - decides where they go - very smart, very dry, does not touch wires PHY: - negotiates link speed - handles encoding / signaling - pushes electrons (or photons), meaning bits without the PHY, an ASIC is just thinking thoughts with nowhere to send em

tl;dr ASIC = brain thinking PHY = mouth speaking (although it does have logic of its own in there too) MII variants = internal nervous system Ethernet is teamwork actually

caveat for “well, actually”s—MII is not a physical chip u can see on the board. the variants of MII are basically interface standards for signaling/clock frequencies BUT sometimes u can open up a switch & see traces on the board between the ASIC & PHY. that’s where your MII logic is applied :)